The number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) assessed at baseline and about 1 month after cancer-directed treatment was associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to findings from a large retrospective pooled analysis reported by Wolfgang Janni, MD, PhD,...
On December 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals aged 16 and older. The EUA allows the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed in the United...
Just in are the results of the SWOG S1007 RxPONDER trial, which evaluated the benefit of chemotherapy in women with early-stage, hormone receptor (HR)-positive, node-positive breast cancer. Based on the findings, many postmenopausal women may be able to safely skip adjuvant chemotherapy. However,...
Extended follow-up results from the phase III monarchE trial showed that adding the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor abemaciclib to standard adjuvant endocrine therapy continued to improve invasive disease–free survival in patients with high-risk, node-positive, early-stage, hormone receptor...
New research showed that behavioral interventions—mindfulness meditation and survivorship education classes—may be effective in reducing depressive symptoms in younger breast cancer survivors. This patient population often experiences the highest levels of depression, stress, and fatigue, which may ...
In a study reported in JAMA Oncology, Hantel et al found that among U.S. states with crisis standards-of-care guidelines, 55% deprioritized some patients with cancer in resource allocation and 26% included cancer-related categorical exclusions. As stated by the investigators, “State crisis...
The more senior of this duo grew up with prognostication by disease stage and was taught that all stage IV cancers behaved the same. In the past 3 decades, we have become much more cognizant of the heterogeneity in outcome within stage. Individual Kaplan-Meier plots by stage separate well but hide...
Systematic liquid biopsies are transforming treatment approaches for patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Many GI tumors are detected late, which ultimately reduces 5-year overall survival rates. Liquid biopsies may become increasingly important both in the early detection and treatment...
OCE Insights is an occasional department developed for The ASCO Post by members of the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this installment, Preeti Narayan, MD, a medical oncologist and clinical reviewer on the Breast and Gynecologic Disease Team,...
In a 7-year follow-up of the phase III CALGB 40601/Alliance trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Aranzazu Fernandez-Martinez, MD, of Lineberger Comprehensive Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues found that neoadjuvant paclitaxel combined with a dual...
ASCO has released a new evidence-based clinical practice guideline to assist in clinical decision-making for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.1 “Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma has transitioned from a disease where we had a single approved therapy for patients to one where we now...
The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and National Medical Fellowships recently announced their new partnership, which is aimed at improving diversity in clinical trials. Leveraging $100 million of the previously announced commitment to diversity and inclusion from Bristol Myers Squibb and the...
Relapse is the primary obstacle to cure in leukemia. The term minimal residual disease (MRD) was coined in the early 1990s to describe finding a disease-specific marker in the context of a morphologic-appearing remission. The technique first used for MRD detection was the Southern blot (!), but the ...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Nicholas J. Short, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues, found that measurable residual disease (MRD) negativity is associated with superior disease-free and overall survival in patients with...
Enrichment of the lungs with oral commensal microbes was associated with advanced-stage disease, worse prognosis, and tumor progression in patients with lung cancer, according to results from a study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.1 “The...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors may prove to be effective in treating patients with two rare cancer types—leptomeningeal metastases and angiosarcoma, according to early-phase clinical trials reported at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), which was held virtually ...
Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors, established as a treatment of many solid tumors, may be finding a role in the treatment of breast cancer. The current state of the art regarding immunotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer was the focus of a talk by Heather L. McArthur, MD, MPH, Medical ...
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the Caribbean. Adding to this growing burden, many of the nations in this geographically spread region have under-resourced health-care systems and a lack of cohesive approaches to the delivery of cancer care. To shed light on the public health...
Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine are participating in a $10 million project to better understand why men and women with a common and deadly type of brain cancer have different survival rates. The investigators hope the study results can be used to develop new therapeutic approaches...
That Moses Judah Folkman would buck tradition, breaking his family’s long line of rabbinical succession and pursuing a career in science and medicine instead, was evident from the time he was a young child. Born in Cleveland on February 24, 1933, the first child of Rabbi Jerome and Bessie Folkman, ...
An assortment of agents has been approved in the United States for the first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and all of them are effective, explained Richard Furman, MD, of Weill-Cornell Medical College, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York. In the modern era, most patients ...
A real-world study of single-agent immune checkpoint inhibitors in driver-mutated non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has demonstrated significant variation in progression-free survival between mutation subtypes, according to data presented during the International Association for the Study of Lung...
Although early-stage, resectable disease represents the best chance for meaningful long-term survival and cure for patients with lung cancer, there are still high rates of recurrence. According to Rajwanth Veluswamy, MD, MSCR, neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatments are needed to improve surgical...
Whole-lung low-dose radiation therapy led to quicker recovery from COVID-19–related pneumonia in hospitalized and oxygen-dependent patients compared with matched controls treated with best supportive care and physician’s choice of anti–COVID-19 therapy, according to the results of a small trial.1...
Formal discussant Thomas J. Dilling, MD, MS, of Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, congratulated the authors on this study. He noted that early findings from both treatment arms showed similar rates of grade 3 and higher toxicity. “However, in the [four-fraction] arm, a fatal event occurred in...
Delivering stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT also called stereotactic ablative radiotherapy) in one or four treatment sessions led to similar outcomes in patients with up to three lung metastases (ie, oligometastatic disease) in the phase II randomized SAFRON II trial. The study, conducted...
A recent report from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has undermined the evidentiary basis for the primary treatment of stage I non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) while rating the evidence for the benefit of screening as “high.”1 According to David F. Yankelevitz, MD, these...
Caring for older adults with cancer is the purview of every oncologist. Over the next 30 years, the older adult population (65 years and older) will represent the fastest-growing segment of the world population. Globally, the number of persons 80 years and older is expected to triple from 143...
Editor’s Note: The following essay was first published in 2011. It is being reprinted here with permission from the author and publisher. In 2020, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) now includes more than 5,000 members; the annual meeting convenes more than 3,200...
Endometrial cancer is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in the United States, and the seventh most common cause of cancer death among women.1 This year, nearly 66,000 women will be diagnosed with the cancer, and about 12,600 will die of the disease.2 And although endometrial cancer is one of...
Among patients with breast cancer treated with radiotherapy, symptoms were commonly underrecognized in reports of pain, pruritus, edema, and fatigue, with younger patients and Black patients having significantly increased odds of symptom underrecognition. These findings were reported by Reshma...
Women who undergo mastectomy with reconstructive surgery as part of breast cancer treatment may face the risk of persistent use of opioids and sedative-hypnotic drugs, according to data presented by Jacob Cogan, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (Abstract GS3-08)....
A large meta-analysis of breast cancer survivors of childbearing age indicated that they are less likely than the general public to become pregnant and may face a higher risk of certain complications, such as preterm labor. However, most survivors who do become pregnant deliver healthy babies and...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present the Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Abutalib and Medeiros explore extranodal marginal zone lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid neoplasms (MALT lymphomas). For each quiz...
Patients aged 65 or older with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer who did not receive radiation therapy after breast-conserving surgery had higher rates of local recurrence but similar 10-year survival rates when compared to patients who received postoperative radiation therapy, according ...
In a retrospective analysis reported in The Lancet Oncology, Clark et al found that new prescriptions for systemic anticancer treatment in England initially declined significantly after societal lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they then increased to higher than prepandemic...
David T. Teachey, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, discusses data showing that cranial radiation might be eliminated in most children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and that bortezomib may improve survival in children with T-cell lymphoblastic ...
Genetic mutations linked to myeloproliferative neoplasms may emerge in childhood or even in utero, decades before they cause cancer, according to a late-breaking abstract presented today at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition by Jyoti Nangalia, MBBChir, and ...
In a study reported in a research letter in JAMA Oncology, Siegel et al found that never-smokers accounted for 12.5% of patients diagnosed with lung cancer in seven U.S. states during a recent 6-year period, with women accounting for a higher proportion than men. Study Details The study included...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Network Open, Cullinane et al found that higher levels of plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) were associated with poorer disease-free survival in patients with both early and advanced breast cancer, with the association being stronger with ...
David Snyder, MD, Acting Chair, City of Hope Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, Duarte, California, who was not involved in the ASCEMBL study, commented on the promise of asciminib: “The hope is this drug would be able to overcome resistance to other tyrosine kinase...
Since the introduction of imatinib almost 18 years ago, similar next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been approved for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), including dasatinib, nilotinib, bosutinib, and ponatinib. These drugs attack a similar target, making it more likely that resistance to...
An analysis by Bhalla et al of multiomics data from newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma has identified 3 main patient groups and 12 prognostic subgroups (as well as potential vulnerabilities in each subgroup) based on five data types generated from genomic and transcriptomic patient...
A subcutaneous injection of the BCMAxCD3 bispecific antibody teclistamab was found to be safe and elicited responses in a majority of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to findings from a multi-institutional phase I study presented by Alfred L. Garfall, MD, and...
A research team from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey evaluated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on various environmental surfaces in outpatient and inpatient hematology/oncology settings. The study revealed extremely low detection of SARS-CoV-2 on environmental surfaces across multiple outpatient...
A study presented by Christopher Gibson, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 80) has revealed for the first time that clonal hematopoiesis may confer a health benefit in allogeneic stem cell or bone marrow transplants....
Although the immunotherapy axicabtagene ciloleucel has significantly improved treatment outcomes for some patients with large B-cell lymphoma, not all patients benefit. In a new study presented by Robbie G. Majzner, MD, and colleagues at the 2020 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting ...
Stem cell transplants are not frequently offered to older patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). According to a study from the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMTCTN 1102), these patients may indeed achieve a survival benefit from stem cell transplant. As...
The ASH Research Collaborative COVID-19 Registry for Hematology provides up-to-date information on outcomes and the course of illness for a group of patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19. In general, registry data showed that hematologic malignancies increase the risk of severity of...
Researchers have successfully built banks of SARS-CoV-2–specific T cells obtained from people who recovered from the virus that are now poised to be used as an experimental treatment in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. This T cell–based therapy may represent a step forward in the search for...